Name Of New Wrexham Prison To Be Decided By Queen

Many thought the region’s new prison would gain the name “North Wales Prison”, however the process has yet to start to decide its final title.

In the latest edition of ‘The Partner’ (PDF copy here) a section details the naming process that will take place including asking the local community for suggestions.

Such a consultation will be conducted by National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and will ‘engage with schools, youth groups, historical societies, local authorities, elected officials and faith groups as well as involving the local press’*.

NOMS say they are “keen that the name of the prison embraces the history and culture of North Wales and has its roots in the Welsh Language.”

An as yet unknown committee of ‘local representatives’, without any information on who or how they will be selected, will then ‘sift through the suggestions and create a shortlist’.

This shortlist of names will then be put forward for the ‘North Wales Regional Steering Group’ to consider. Again, there no detail of if the steering group is internal to NOMS, or if is an outside third party body. A Google search shows three results for an exact name query of such a group, none that appear related or relevant to this process.

Once the above is complete, the formal process then involves the name being signed off by the Chief Executive Officer of NOMS, Michael Spurr and ‘final approval’ resides with the unelected head of state, Her Majesty The Queen because the prison is Crown Property.

Many had thought the ‘North Wales Prison’ title had been effectively decided upon already due to its widespread usage, however it appears it is just a working title until the above process has been completed.

(If asked, Wrexham.com will submit ‘Chester Prison‘ as our choice. However if we are asked to facilitate a poll or similar we will obviously do that seriously.)